Call

Is the West facing a water war? Facing continued drought, several states are making moves that could threaten interstate compacts and, more importantly, the amount of water flowing into the Colorado River.

When Colorado’s earth cracked open in the great drought of 2002, it may have also cracked open a new corner of consciousness about the finite nature of the state’s water supplies. Spurred by the drought, Gov.

The Ouray City Council has approved a water rights lease from an entity that owns senior downstream water rights, in order to satisfy a recent call on its municipal water supply. The lease is a temporary, short-term solution to augment the city’s water supply, as staff continue to work toward a more permanent solution.

A compact call looms in the 10th year of sustained drought in the Colorado River Basin. The Upper Basin, which includes all of Colorado, would have to send water downstream, and would be faced with dramatic curtailment measures.

The first call was placed on the Colorado River on Monday, from the Grand Valley Irrigation Co., which feared flow levels in the river would stay exceptionally low. Flows went back up shortly thereafter, and the call was back off, but water managers are likely to remain in a state of heightened vigilance this year, particularly in comparison to just one year ago.

For a journalist, sitting through last week's conference on the Colorado River, hosted by theNatural Resources Law Centerat the University of Colorado, was a great way to take the river's pulse -- to get a sense of how the river's water czars, acade